This week on Everything You Need To Know Is This, Elon Musk is headline news again.

Elon Musk puts his $44 billion Twitter deal on hold

Elon Musk and Twitter are on a break, just weeks after making their relationship official. On Friday, Musk publicly hit pause on his planned acquisition of the company, voicing concerns over the number of fake accounts. “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he said, followed by a tweet just two hours later saying he was ‘still committed to acquisition’ - (AKA ‘my lawyers made me say this).  He said he would use the time apart to do a random sample of 100 followers to identify bots ‘because that is what Twitter uses’ and urged others to do the same. Poor old Twitter was not only caught off guard by tweet (red flag), but its legal team allegedly accused Musk of violating a nondisclosure agreement by revealing the platform’s sample size for automated users, which we know because he tweeted it (double red flag). His bombshell sent Twitter stock crashing as the markets feared he was attempting to back out of the acquisition - which he may well be. Since announcing his takeover, there’s been widespread speculation that Musk never had any intention of going through with it; and this latest move has left us wondering what the future holds for the unhappy couple.  

LinkedIn updates its algorithm to keep the feed authentic and productive

LinkedIn has cut the click-bait. The platform has updated its feed algorithm to make the user experience more authentic by demoting insincere content. In a statement, it said it will no longer promote content that expressly asks or encourages the community to engage via likes or reactions or that is posted with the exclusive intent of boosting reach on the platform. It will also be filtering polls to show only those that are helpful or relevant, introducing controls that allow members to signal when they’re uninterested in content and dedicating more time to surfacing the conversations and activity that matter most to people. “We’re continuously investing in the tools and technology to ensure that the content you see on your feeds adds value to your professional journey and creates a more personalised and relevant experience,” it wrote. The platform has reported ‘record levels’ of engagement growth for six quarters in a row and with such a commitment to authentic engagement, it looks set to keep going.

Crypto-crash as stablecoin collapse sends market into chaos

The crypto-currency markets are in a state of chaos after a popular token lost 99% of its value and told its peers, “If I’m going down, you’re all coming with me.” The Terra Luna token left no man standing after it fell from $119 last month to $0.09 on Thursday, creating a knock-on effect on a linked token, TerraUSD - a so-called stablecoin -, and causing the market to collapse as investors pulled out of major crypto-curencies. #CryptoCrash has been trending all weekend as the combined market value of all crypto-currencies dropped to a third of its November value. “The collapse of TerraUSD has started what we used to call the panics’, when major financial institutions sold off large chunks of assets and everyone else tried to take their money out as quickly as they could,” said economist Frances Coppola. Stablecoins are digital currencies that are pegged to a stable asset and are designed to reduce the volatility of the more erratic cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin). In other words, they bridge the worlds of cyprotcurrnecy and the bridge just came crashing down. Run for your life!

‍